


And forevermore

by Meh_tis



Category: High School Musical (Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 09:55:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14668614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meh_tis/pseuds/Meh_tis
Summary: It was strange seeing him at his doorstep, when Ryan had imagined him still in Albuquerque (and not answering his messages). But the strangest thing of all was how much he looked like he belonged there.





	And forevermore

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Unforgettable](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7028383) by [bribitribbit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bribitribbit/pseuds/bribitribbit). 



> First fic!  
> Inspired by the amazing [Unforgettable](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7028383/chapters/15992713) by [bribitribbit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bribitribbit/pseuds/bribitribbit); this is a kind of continuation set a few months after it.  
>   
> Edit:  
> Fixed some minor errors and edited the text a bit, hopefully now it flows better. 
> 
> And holy shit, thanks for all the kudos & comments, you guys are amazing! <3

 

_“_ _Maybe ten years from now, May 15th, 2018, it will be a day like any other, and then I hear my doorbell ring and standing on my doorstep will be the love of my life, coming home from a day at work with take-out and a movie. I hope it will be a good movie. I hope they still make good movies in ten years. I think that is where I would like to be in ten years: home.”_

_May 15 th, 2018_  
_New York City_

Ryan sighed for what felt the 47th time that day. He had a lingering headache that, while not being a full-fledged migraine, was still another annoyance adding up to an already pretty dull day. He loved his job, he really did: he was the protagonist in one of Broadway’s most beloved remakes of all times, practically his childhood dream come true. And it wasn’t like anything had gone wrong, exactly: there had been no missteps or missed cues. Everything had been just too perfect. The show was always great, if Ryan said so himself. But some days, like today, he could feel a lack of energy that spoiled the joy of the performance. He really didn’t like that: it made him feel like he wasn't delivering what the public had came for. Which was why he had practically fled the theatre after the show, not wanting to force smiles for fans he felt he had disappointed.

 Now, as he finally approached his apartment complex, it occurred to him that maybe the cause of his underlying bad mood in the first place had something to do with his boyfriend’s vague responses to his texts, that had stopped altogether earlier that afternoon. He knew he was being unreasonable; Chad was busy these days, what with the end of school and all. He probably couldn’t answer every single one of his messages. Though, a small voice in Ryan’s head objected, he could’ve spared a moment for his own boyfriend.

Annoyed, Ryan suppressed the thought, focusing instead on the program for the rest of the night: he still had leftover Chinese fried rice, maybe also a beer to wash it down with. Then he could take a nice, long bath: letting his sore muscles soak in warm water and Himalayan salts seemed like a phenomenally good idea at the moment.

He was so taken by his musings that he didn’t even realize there was somebody standing at his door until he heard the doorbell ring. His eyes snapped up to meet a head full of curls, that turned to reveal the face of a startled Chad. The expression was immediately replaced with a wide grin.

“Hey! Good, you’re home.” he said, and Ryan blinked, taken aback.

“Yeah, I’m home --” he echoed “What are you doing here anyways?” he added, and then flinched, hoping it hadn’t come out too bitchy.

Chad didn’t seem bothered at all.

“Tomorrow it’s your day off, right? It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other, so I just thought I could, you know, skip school and come visit for a couple of days. It was a last minute decision.” He laughed, looking sheepish. “I just hope I’m not bothering you.”

Ryan took a moment to take him all in, his dumb-logoed blue t-shirt, the box he was holding (looking suspiciously like pizza -- Ryan’s mouth watered at the thought), his bright eyes and messy hair and inexplicably sexy goatee. And as he was doing that, all the tension in his shoulders magically melted away.

“No, you’re definitely not bothering me.” he said, feeling a stupid smile pull at the corners of his mouth.

He reached out to take Chad’s hand, busy pulling at the curl at the nape of his neck, and placed a light kiss on its back. Chad looked down, biting at his lower lip, and Ryan realized once again that he really, really liked that.

“What if I hadn’t been home?” he asked a little absently, nuzzling a kiss under Chad’s jaw.

“Well, I could have called you. Or I could’ve crashed at Kelsi’s place or something” Chad replied casually, equally distracted.

In just a few months he had managed to befriend most of his boyfriend’s acquaintances; which was saying something, considering Ryan often felt like he knew half of New York’s population. Kelsi, being the lovely little bean she was, had been the first to reach out to Chad. It helped somehow that she took a sort of devious pride in their reunion. As far as Ryan knew, the two of them were now on daily basis communication, revolving mostly around compromising info about Ryan himself; such as, for example, pictures of Ryan lying in a bathtub during his last humiliating hangover, including a pink feather boa and way too much glitter. Chad wouldn’t stop laughing at it, and he could’ve killed Kelsi that time, if it wasn’t for his accidental drunken texting his boyfriend to lament his absence that had already exposed him, and effectively made vengeance useless.

Chad’s charms had worked even on Mattie, who at first had had her mind set on rejecting “James’ replacement”, as she’d called him; she was now looking forwards to Chad’s visits, not that she would ever admit that out loud. But all it had taken her was a look at the man himself, before grudgingly declaring:

 “I’m still 100% not forgiving you for cheating on James. Or cheating, in general. But now I kind of get where you’re coming from. He’s the sexiest guy ever. Why do you keep scoring hot guys? Why _you?_ ”

Ryan had just smirked and secretly considered that a personal accomplishment.

It wasn’t just the people that Chad fit in with. He had fallen in love with the City and, when Ryan was at rehearsals, he spent every free moment playing basketball with random kids in courts all over. He had started visiting at any chance he could find, even dragging Ryan around to sightsee anything that caught his attention (which was everything, really).

It was strange seeing him at his doorstep, when Ryan had imagined him still in Albuquerque (and not answering his messages). But the strangest thing of all was how much he looked like he belonged there. Ryan also couldn’t help but feel how amazing it was that just one look at Chad and all of his crankiness just evaporated. He decided to express his gratitude for this miracle by claiming those full lips in front of him for a kiss, one that was long and sweet and familiar. Ryan liked this kind of kiss more and more every time.

When they finally pulled back, Chad was sporting a dopey grin that Ryan was sure mirrored his own. Their moment was interrupted by a loud stomach growl. Chad snickered.

“I was about to ask you if you had dinner already. Guess that’s my answer.”

“Shut up” mumbled Ryan, ears turning pink, seconds before he started laughing too.

“Come on, I also got you that movie you’ve been ranting about forever. You know, the tragic ‘rich gay kids in love’ one.”

“You really are old school.” Smiled Ryan, taking the DVD case Chad was handing him. “ -- Hey, I was not ranting! _Call me by your name_ is an Oscar winner! Of course I’d want to see it with you. Remind me who was the one who dragged me to a superhero movie premiere, and then wouldn’t stop talking about it for the whole day afterwards.”

Chad rolled his eyes. “I keep telling you, man: _Black Panther_ is a masterpiece. Way cooler than any other movie.”

“Yeah, yeah, we get it, Chadwick Boseman is hot” quipped Ryan, finally unlocking the door of his apartment and gesturing for Chad to get inside.

“Whatever, dude. Just hope you don’t fall asleep during your Oscar winner, because I won’t be able to tell you what’s going on if you do. I’m super tired. My students are hyped these days, must be the holidays approaching. Also, I had a bunch of boring papers to fill out before I could make my escape.”

“Wait, did you go to work today?” asked Ryan, surprised.

“Yeah, well, I told you, it was a last minute thing.” replied Chad, busy pulling beer cans out of his backpack. Then, in a softer voice, he added “I just missed you, you know.”

And Ryan thought he was going to implode right there and then, because how adorable was that? But Chad was already moving on to the next topic.

“By the way, I saw your sister this morning. She came to school to discuss a new theatre program or whatever. She is scary, man. I mean, she’s always been scary, but now -- “

“What? What did she do this time?”

“She was like. _Nice_ , I guess. She was nice _to me_. That’s creepy.” Chad looked like he didn’t believed what he was saying.

Ryan laughed. “Must be ‘the Zeke effect’. She got back with him officially two weeks ago. That, or the insane amount of makeup sex they seem to be having these days.” He cracked up even more, seeing his boyfriend’s horrified expression.

“Dude, TMI.” Chad said, shivering. “Poor Zeke. But then again, he's always had an obsession with your sister since back then. You don’t get over your first.” he muttered, almost to himself.

Ryan was currently busy opening the pizza box and missed the last part. “Oh, God, pepperoni!” he beamed. “Have I ever told you I love you?”

The answer was an unexpectedly quiet “Yeah, you have.”

Ryan whipped his head up to look at Chad, who was currently gazing hard at some point on the floor, pulling painfully at his curl. Ryan felt a horrible sensation within him, like someone had punched him in the gut. Except he knew this was his fault. He cursed himself once again for his _awesome_ ability to hurt his loved ones. But the past was the past: it was useless mulling over it. This time he wanted to cherish what he had.

“Come here” he said, closing the distance between them and sliding two fingers under the other man's chin to tilt his head up. He didn’t know what to say, he didn’t want his words to sound empty. No apology would ever be enough. So he just looked at Chad in silence, hoping his eyes could convey all the feelings he couldn’t express. So much for being an actor. He touched his lips to Chad’s gently, almost shyly. The kiss held a promise. He didn’t know of what yet: he just knew it felt right to look at a future that had this man in it. He pulled back to look at Chad’s face, and the words fell from his mouth before he could process them.

“Move in with me.”

Ryan saw Chad’s eyes grow wide and panic flooded him as the realization of what he had just said sunk in.

“I mean” he tried, voice straining “you don’t have to move in right now. Um. If you don’t want to. I just-- it’s just, it would be nice, you know, if you decided to come here. To New York. As I said there are a lot of nice schools here , and we wouldn’t have to wait for the holidays to meet, so…”

Ryan realized he was rambling. He shut his mouth and forced himself to take calm, steady breaths. He was trying so hard to concentrate that he didn’t even her Chad’s tentative reply at first.

“Well, you know, Gabriella and Troy’s baby is coming, and I promised to be the godfather-- I can’t really miss this. And then there’s school, with the end of year and everything, so yeah…” he trailed off, and Ryan felt his stomach drop. He looked down, trying to think of a way to answer that, but Chad wasn’t finished.

“I mean, to be honest I thought about it a couple of times, but I didn’t know if you would be busy with the shooting for the movie, or the show. Or, well, if you would want me here, to be honest”

Ryan’s eyes snapped up to his boyfriend’s face, but he still couldn’t find anything to say, because something like a huge mass of relief, maybe hope, had lodged itself in his throat. Chad hadn’t said no. In fact, he was almost laughing nervously, as he continued:

“But, I mean, if you want me to I could-- there are still a few things I would need to take care of, and then I would have to give my resignation and start looking for another job, so I can’t really leave everything right now-“

“Of course!” interjected Ryan, but stopped himself before he could start babbling again when Chad smiled at him.

“What about the end of summer?” he said “This way, I could do whatever I need to do, and be the most amazing godfather ever. And then, if you still want me to-“

“Yes!” Ryan cut him off before Chad could finish. He couldn’t take it anymore, the relief was suddenly overflowing. He tried to compose himself.

“Yeah, I mean. The end of summer is… perfect."

He felt like an idiot, and he was sure that a stupid grin was about to split his face in half, but he couldn’t care less. Especially not when Chad grinned back at him and echoed “Perfect.”

So Ryan did the only thing he could think of and pulled Chad in to kiss him breathless, just because he wanted to, just because _he could._

~*~

Chad was glad. Like, really glad. He had spent the last few hours convinced that this was a horrible idea, even as he boarded the plane. He was feeling like a lovesick teenager, but he really missed Ryan.

It was strange, because technically speaking he had missed him every day for almost ten years. But before they had met again at East High's ten year reunion, he was kind of used to it. He thought of their relationship as nothing more than a fond and hearth wrenching memory, the kind that stays with you forever because it shaped who you are. Back then he would have never imagined he would get to _meet_ Ryan again, never mind talk to him, or kiss him, or have the indisputably best sex of his life with him.

Now he had all he had never dared to dream of having again, and this simple fact played tricks on his mind sometimes. He would be going on about his day as usual, and randomly remember how Ryan’s eyes crinkled when he smiled (that really hadn’t changed one bit), or the way his voice cracked while he moaned Chad’s name: all of a sudden the need to be with Ryan, to see him and hear him and just be close to him, would overcome Chad.

It didn’t just happen with the things he knew about Ryan from the past. His laugh was bright as ever, and Chad loved it, and all the things he recalled from high school. But he found even more fascinating all the new aspects: the passion Ryan put in his work, bordering obsession sometimes; the way his body had been shaped by that unrelenting commitment, the smooth lines of muscle, the added grace to every single one of his movements. That new, easy confidence he radiated. The way he would enter a room full of people and all eyes would automatically go to him. Ryan really had become the star Chad knew he would be, and for a strange miracle he was _his._

To be perfectly honest, when Ryan had asked him to move in, his brain had shut down for a good two minutes. He couldn’t lie to himself, he was still a bit scared. Ryan hadn’t exactly the best track record in serious relationships. But he was the one that asked, and somehow something felt different this time.

Chad felt like he perfectly blended in with Ryan’s life every time they were together. And he loved waking up tangled in long limbs, to Ryan’s adorable sleepy face and messy bed head after a show, or hearing Ryan sing almost every minute he spent in his apartment and, most of all, the way Ryan looked at his face when he thought Chad couldn’t see him, with an expression of mild wonder and pride like he couldn’t believe Chad was really there with him. This was so close to what he had imagined the future would look like, all those years ago. It was almost scary. But some part of him wanted this too much to listen to the fear. So when Ryan had kissed him, he had kissed back.

Now, with his nerves settling, he really was happy he had made the impulsive decision of coming here unannounced. He could look at Ryan’s face while he narrated his students’ mayhem in the locker room, nothing he hadn’t experienced a hundred times over; but he didn’t mind repeating that story again just to look at Ryan doubling over with laughter while wheezing “Oh my God, wet towels? That’s _so gay_.”

He loved these trivial things, Chad decided. Watching your lover laugh at some stupid thing that happened to you made the day infinitely better. It was great that he could look forward to more of this in the near future.

~*~

They ended up huddled on the couch with the DVD on, after Chad had managed to scarf down his pizza in record time. Ryan was still amazed at just how much the man could eat in such a little time, and still keeping that amazing physique. Now Chad’s head rested on Ryan’s chest, Ryan’s hand carding though his curls, as he tried (and failed) to stay awake.

Ryan himself was dozing off, lulled by the slow rhythm of the movie, with its soft scenery of an Italian summer in the countryside.  Ryan lazily thought it would be nice to go on holiday somewhere. Maybe Spain. His parents had just opened a new club somewhere near Formentera. It sounded great; just a couple of days, the two of them, to get away from the hustle of their lives. If Ryan had been more awake, he would have marveled at the domesticity of such a plan. Nothing like that had ever occurred to him when he was still with James, as much as he’d loved him.

But now Ryan was just warm and content, and the only thing crossing his mind were half formed thoughts: of how grateful he was for his boyfriend’s quiet thoughtfulness, that made him bring home Ryan’s favorite comfort food, and of how nice it was that Chad knew him from before the fame and success, and wasn’t the least bit impressed with his diva fits. Of how instead he just smirked and told him how much he looked like Shar, and that was enough to leave Ryan speechless, because how could he contradict that?

The physical compatibility was another great thing, no doubt about that. In their years apart from each other they had both learned a thing or two. But more than sex, Ryan loved little moments like these, when he could just be himself without worrying about how he came across, because Chad could see through all his defenses and flaws, and he strangely felt safe and accepted anyways.

Ryan knew he was probably being selfish, but he wanted all of this; to come back to his apartment in a dull day, and watch Chad’s eyes lit up as he talked about his students. He wanted shared dinners with a ton of delicious and unhealthy cheese and no candlelight, and the weight of his boyfriend on top of him while they both fell asleep with the TV still on.

More than anything, Ryan thought, just before he passed out, he wanted this feeling. It felt a lot like being home.

**Author's Note:**

> I had to study for my exams, so instead I wrote this. Blame my craving for cheesy endings (sorry about that).  
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading!


End file.
